Umkhosi Wenala

Umkhosi Wenala is a theater-making/storytelling collaboration between Empatheatre and Mbazwana Creative Arts (MCA)in Zululand, Kwa-Zulu Natal that set out to create an innovative democratic decision-making space for youth in northern KZN, South Africa through the process of restorative public storytelling. Over a period of 18 months the team listened to stories of elders, youth and everyone in between in Northern KZN to surface the rich and diverse histories of this region. With the legacies of apartheid many perspectives and histories have been excluded in decision making, and this play sets out to re-map these lost histories and memories through the leadership of KZN youth. From out of the research and devising workshop process, a new musical theatre production was born titled Umkhosi Wenala (The Festival of Abundance). Since 2022 the production has toured across the region of Northern Zululand, with each performance followed by citizen assembly with the audience, performers and creative team. Umkhosi Wenala features 13-young activist theatre-makers and storytellers in the region, and worked to mobilize their existing capacities and talents towards democratic governance and social-justice issues arising for them. The two collaborating organizations Empatheatre and the Mbazwana Creative Arts (MCA)share a combined vision for forging inclusive creative processes and spaces where community artists/writers/ musicians and performers are located center-stage of their own stories and histories.

THE PLAY

The 60 minute musical (told in isiZulu and English) tells the story of two twins, a brother Nkosana and sister Makhosazana who inherit a kingdom after the disappearance of their mother, a queen, said to have drowned in the ocean. The two Nkosi’s, destined to rule together, are divided by circumstance and political forces beyond their control. After two decades of betrayal and conflict between their competing kingdoms, the situation further escalates with the arrival of a fence which cuts the communities off from their village and resources and resurfaces past tensions and new resentments. Umkhosi Wenala weaves together many relevant moments from the last century of Northern Zululand’s history and uses humor, pathos, satire, ritual and music to tell its story.

THE CRISIS THE PLAY RESPONDS TO

Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal has experienced generations of exclusion and environmental racism. During apartheid, communities were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes to either make way for mining, tourism and/or conservation. In the region around the IsiMangaliso National Park, with ongoing wilderness expansion, local Zulu and Tsonga people are still under threat of being dispossessed from the resting (and dwelling) place of their ancestors, their land, their livelihood practices, and the realms in which their ancestral stories weave into daily practices with land and ocean. The region has been declared a world heritage site, which while is an important demarcation for tourism and environmental protection, the cultural heritage(s) that exist in this region have not been fully articulated and or included in the region's plans and projects. Furthermore, with this demarcation as a heritage site, no industry or industrial development is allowed in the region, despite mining concessions that have been made nearby. This means rural youth growing up in this area have limited creative career options available to them, namely two - conservation or extractive capitalism. Creative economies, and the room for creative economies between these polar fields is desperately needed. Furthermore, there is great potential in drawing from these creative and education economies as mediums for social justice and restoring the cultural heritages into the world heritage site - situated creative education as a powerful opportunity for capacity mobilization in the region. The central instrument used to justify dispossession and environmental racism is the process of mapping. Land and sea is divided and allocated value through spatial planning and mapping by governments, NGOs, and Big Business around conservation, as well as by extractive industry, drawn mainly from biological sciences and economics. Yet the spiritual, social, and intersecting cultural knowledge(s) that are also impacted by these spatial plans and zonations are not considered. This participative research and theatre-making/touring component of Umkhosi Wenala set out to create a new public dialogue and alternative approach to spatial planning of rural areas surrounding conservation and mining concessions. One in which traditional knowledge, contemporary social dynamics, and cultural phenomena are included in decision making processes. Using an innovative participative research and theatre methodology, Empatheatre in collaboration with the Mbazwana Creative Arts Centre in Northern Zululand by Sodwana Bay - set out to create a new capacity strengthening and capacity mobilising project, that builds a new approach to negotiating and planning public space through public storytelling (theatre/dance/music). Umkhosi Wenala has two concurrent practices, on the one side there is the creation of a powerful theatrical spectacle in which audience members participate in a ‘call and response’ storytelling process that re-maps (in vernacular isiZulu) the land, creating an “alternate archive” that re-tells the story of the region from local people’s perspective, and then explores, alongside the public, the potential of making a new map of the region. On the other side of the project, there is an ongoing social-developing process, of building the capacity of 13 young artist/activist change drivers in the region, to become new champions for the communities surrounding the World Heritage Site

ABOUT THE SHOW ON THE 15th NOVEMBER

We are bringing this play to Cape Town as it is being used as part of a new curriculum in exploring the human rights dimensions of conservation, and exploring the creation of a new approach to how we educate those responsible for managing conservation areas in our Country. The play is subsidised by our funders and so this once off show is free. It runs for an hour, and includes a post-show dialogue and citizen assembly on a: what would reparative conservation actually look like? And what does it mean for communities to lead the care of the ecosystems they've always lived with?

Learn about the Community whose stories we will be sharing HERE

Watch a documentary of the making of the play HERE

The production features the talents of Mpume Mthombeni, Sphamandla Mzobe, Dumisani Ngubane, Phindile Gumede, Njabulo Zikhali, Mbali Ntuli, Thembi Nxumalo, Siphamandla Mafuleka, Noxolo Mlungwana, Nokubonga Zikhali, Nolwazi Zulu, Nomthandazo Nxumalo, and Yatoh Mabika. Umkhosi Wenala was devised and co-created by the award-winning Empatheatre team of Mpume Mthombeni, Dylan McGarry and Neil Coppen alongside Mbazwana Creative Arts members Sphamandla Mzombe, Dumasani Ngubane, Njabulo Zikhali , Mbali Ntuli, Siphamandla Vusi Mafuleka, Noxolo Thandeka Mlungwana, Zimpendulo Petunia Mthembu, Nokubonga Zikhali, Nolwazi Zulu, Nelisiwe Mbuyazi and Nomthandazo Nxumalo. Umkhosi Wenala has been made possible through generous support from the Bertha Foundation (Bertha Artivism Award), NAC (National Arts Council) , The One Ocean HUB and ACEP DEEP CONNECTIONS project. With special thanks to Dr Philile Mbatha for sharing her research and knowledge so generously with us, Adrian Kawaley-Lathan and the incredible team at the Bertha Foundation, Wendy and Neville Aliyff for all their love and support. Jerry Mngomezulu and Jen Whittingham for being such integral friends and advisors on the project.